Abstract [en]

In 2012, equestrian sports was the second largest youth sport category in Sweden with approximately 500,000 practisers. Equine sports may be practised in multiple ways: individually or in a group, privately or at a riding school, and through a choice of numerous different disciplines such as dressage, show jumping, three-day eventing and driving. Despite the large number of equestrian sport practicers, no company presently offers equestrian sports-related website services. Instead, the focus has been placed on team sports such as football and ice hockey, i.e. sports which offer highly limited practice alternatives when compared to the extensive choices available in equestrianism. The purpose of this study is to examine the attainability of creating equestrian sports-related website services for the Swedish market. A case study of the sports website company Svenskalag.se was performed in order to gain knowledge of what a developing company strives towards, finds important from a business point of view, and what it currently offers in terms of services. Furthermore, three different equestrian sports businesses were examined through interviewing individuals with varying degrees of operational responsibility, the goal being to identify problems which might be resolved through targeted website services. Finally, several short interviews with the businesses’ customers were performed to obtain information on how they perceive the current business websites and what they may be lacking. Thus, three different perspectives were examined.